SermonIndex · Developer API

The SermonIndex API.

Sixty thousand sermons, the preachers who gave them, the themes they treat and the scripture they open — as plain JSON on a CDN. No key, no registration, no rate limit. Ask for a verse and get back every sermon preached on it.

— sermons — preachers — topics — scripture references

SermonIndex has been collecting and freely giving away audio sermons since 2002. The API opens that same library to anyone building something of their own — a Bible study site that wants to show preaching on the passage a reader is looking at, a church app, a research project, a plugin. It costs nothing and it asks nothing of you.

Start here

There is no sign-up and no key. Make an HTTP GET and you have JSON:

# everything preached on John 3:16 curl https://api.sermonindex.net/v2/scripture/JHN/3/16 # everything filed under prayer curl https://api.sermonindex.net/v2/topics/prayer # one preacher and all his sermons curl https://api.sermonindex.net/v2/speakers/leonard-ravenhill

Base URL https://api.sermonindex.net/v2 — every path also answers with a .json suffix if your tooling prefers it. Responses are pre-generated files served from the edge, so they are fast and they do not fall over under load.

What you can ask for

Sermons by scripture

Book, chapter or single verse — and you get every sermon that opens it, not a truncated sample. This is the part no one else has.

Sermons by topic

Thousands of themes, each with its own sermon list and the passages most often preached alongside it.

Preachers

Names, biographies, portraits and the themes each man is most often heard on.

Sermon detail

Full transcript, outline, pull-quotes, audio and video URLs, subtitle tracks, PDF and plain-text downloads.

The Bible itself

Over a thousand translations, chapter by chapter, hosted by us so it stays reachable.

Bulk downloads

Would rather not call an API at all? Take the whole dataset as a zip or a SQLite database.

Everything a listing needs, in one call

Every sermon that appears in a list — a verse result, a topic result, a preacher's page — carries enough with it to render a finished card without a second request: the title and one-line summary, the preacher's name and portrait URL, duration, the MP3 and MP4 links, the Archive.org mirrors, SRT and VTT subtitle tracks, PDF and plain-text versions, its topics, its scripture references, and the canonical page on SermonIndex.

// one entry from /v2/scripture/JHN/3/16 { "id": "GX7CRS1lybv-Zow8", "title": "The Love of God", "speaker": "Leonard Ravenhill", "speakerImage": "https://www.sermonindex.net/images/speakers/l/leonardravenhill.png", "summary": "…", "duration": "46:12", "mp3Url": "https://archive.org/download/SERMONINDEX_SID0478/SID0478.mp3", "cdnMp3Url": "https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/0/SID0478.mp3", "vttUrl": "https://sermonindex3.b-cdn.net/vtt/0/SID0478.vtt", "url": "https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/leonard-ravenhill/…/", "topics": [ { "name": "Love", "slug": "love" } ], "scripture": [ { "bookId": "JHN", "chapter": 3, "verse": 16 } ] }

Using it well

Please cache. The data changes slowly — a nightly or weekly refresh is plenty, and it keeps our bandwidth bill where it belongs. If you are going to walk the whole library, take a bulk download instead of making sixty thousand requests.

Audio and video files are served from separate CDN hostnames and are large. Link to them or stream them; please do not re-host the whole audio library without writing to us first — not because we would refuse, but because we would like to help you do it in a way that does not fall over.

For Personal and Ministry Use

All materials on SermonIndex are freely available for personal edification and for the work of discipleship and evangelism. These messages may be shared with others, played in churches, homes, Bible studies, and ministry gatherings, and used in teaching and other ministry settings. Online sharing or translation into other languages may also be undertaken where it serves the purpose of personal ministry, missionary outreach, or the edification of believers, and is done in a careful and respectful manner that honors the original message.

Our desire is that these messages remain freely given and not used for commercial gain, in keeping with the words of our Lord: Freely you have received; freely give (Matthew 10:8). It brings us great joy whenever these sermons are used to encourage believers, strengthen the Church, and lead many into a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ.

Guarding Against Commercial Use

While these materials are freely available for ministry purposes, they are not intended to be bought or sold for commercial gain.

The sermons and recordings hosted on SermonIndex represent the lives and ministries of many faithful servants of God. We desire to honor both their legacy and the sacred message they preached by ensuring these materials remain freely available to all.

For this reason, we ask that the materials not be packaged, sold, or used in commercial products or profit-driven ventures. Our hope is that the messages entrusted to us will always remain freely accessible to the Body of Christ, without financial barriers.

Attribution to SermonIndex.net in some way, to safeguard these principles, is strongly encouraged.

Not sure whether your use fits? Write to us at sermonindex@gmail.com — you are always free to reach out, and we would far rather talk it through than have anyone guess. The full terms are on the copying permissions page.

Versions

This is version 2, and it is the only supported version. The old /audio/ JSON files that lived on the previous server, and the short-lived /v1 tree, have both been retired. If you were using either, the migration is mostly a matter of new paths — the reference lists them all, and the shape of the data will be familiar.

Questions, corrections, or something you have built with this? Get in touch — we would like to hear about it.